Palm Pre Reviewed 144
mlingojones writes "The Palm Pre doesn't come out until June 6th, but the Boy Genius Report not only got their hands on one but also posted a review of it. They liked webOS, but not the hardware (especially the keyboard). Overall, they feel that 'once people are able to play a real unit themselves, there will be more than a lot of happy Palm Pre customers.'" On the downside, this review says the keyboard is lousy.
summary... (Score:3, Informative)
The hardware is bad. The keyboard doubly so.
Re:vs iPhone (Score:2, Informative)
i don't even own a cellphone
I do: a £10 Nokia. The features it has? Phone calls and text messages. And I can type a message on it much faster than anyone on an iPhone.
Re:Prepare to be blinded (Score:3, Informative)
> Actually it's a pretty useless website that doesn't do anything but mumble some useless facts.
Um, welcome to Marketing 101.
And, apparently, the number one use for Flash on websites. It seems that [generally] the more Flash a site or page has, the more useless the content is likely to be to the user.
For *useful* information about the Palm Pre, I suggest going to http://www.precentral.net/ [precentral.net] They are a little hyper to post just about everything known to man about the Pre, but there is no lack of useful information (and very little Flash :) )
Re:vs iPhone (Score:2, Informative)
Re:vs iPhone (Score:4, Informative)
Apple also used to be really strict about testing for this during the app approval process, but it looks like they relaxed the standards. Hmm, I wonder why... I've recently seen apps which crash after 3-4 minutes of use.
By the way, check out my first app - for the cricket lovers around the world: Virtual Cricket for iPhone [virtualcricket.mobi]
Re:vs iPhone (Score:5, Informative)
> Autocorrection can't be disabled by default.
Settings --> General --> Keyboard:
Auto-Correction: OFF
Auto-Capitalization: OFF
> I would but I can't copy and paste the name of the place.
Upgrade to 3.0 and you'll be able to.
Re:vs iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
No GSM, no SIM (Score:3, Informative)
First, why no phone test. Did they not have a SIM card?
They may have but the phone is not a GSM phone. You cannot use a SIM with it.
Second, the snipe a Palm at the end was not professional. Palm has produced serious hardware, the Palm V for instance. But to produce serious hardware someone needs to pay serious prices. One issue is that Palm is not longer a leader in innovation, and no longer goes after the market that will pay those prices. So, it is now down to commodity hardware, a tought fight to win.
I loved my Palm hardware of the past. But, I don't think going after the commodity market has to mean stuff that does have good ergonomics, just look at the Palm V... I guess keyboards are more complex to get right for cheap though. I reserve judgement until I do it myself.
I think they've done a lot of things right though and they may even surpass Android use, though that will be tough with a lot on Android phones on the way.
Third, who knows what the application store is going to do. Android already has many Apps. iPhone has many apps. Pre will have many apps. The problem is we know have three different platforms, so we in a compatibility hell hole where manufacturers are tying us into platforms.
I don't mind this though because the platforms are actually pretty different. The Pre will have mostly web apps with extensions - that is to say, be heavily based around web technologies but make some use of the pre specific API's.
Android will have a lot of apps that are tailored to a wide range of devices, and probably take good advantage of the freedom the platform offers.
iPhone apps will leverage heavily the libraries to deliver a more touch oriented experience.
I think there's room in the world for more than one platform, and I don't think it's all that bad you may have to write an app three different ways. I value taking full advantage of the device at hand over portability of a small application.
Re:vs iPhone (Score:1, Informative)
You know you can change the input language, even on the fly.
Re:vs iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
Note that the reviewer is looking at a pre-production version of the phone. Some people have pointed out that the real production versions of the phone have a better keyboard and smoother sliding action. Note that people *are* saying that the keyboard is a lesser keyboard than the Treo's.
Re:vs iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
I couldn't care less about the brand, which I hate, nor the advertising, which I don't watch. The reason I got my iPhone was the intuitive web browsing interface and the fact that it was the only goddamn web-enabled phone that wouldn't cost me $120 a month for something ridiculous like 5mb-50mb of data a month (this one's ~$52 a month for 500MB). Lousy country.
And looking at the competition, I made the right choice. My dad's got a blackberry storm. How does it go? Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow. It's absolutely terrible.
I would have liked an android phone but there weren't any available within the country until just recently and even then the plans are worse. I'm not made of money.
Re:vs iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
It was impossible to write messages in different languages before that without everything being "corrected" to English.
Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards, and select all the languages that you use regularly. When you have more than one language selected, the pop-up keyboards will have a little "globe" icon to the left of the space bar, that lets you switch languages as you type. I use this to switch between English and Dutch and I find it's pretty convenient.
(I use a 2nd generation iPod touch, but I'd expect the 1st gen, and the iPhones, to have the keyboard settings in the same place.)